That’s exactly it. Clearly Alpine knew something was going on with Piastri/McLaren and decided to throw a press release out there first to try and pressure him into signing.

Like who?

Doesn’t matter which car they run unless they start marketing the series towards motorsports fans, instead of their current strategy of trying to create new motorsports fans (which will never work).

Most current IndyCar drivers have a history in European single-seater feeder series, in which they competed against current F1 drivers. Some were fairly impressive (mainly Herta), a few were somewhat decent (Newgarden, Palou, Rosenqvist) but most others were really not cutting it.

Maybe because there’s still some appreciation for the instrumental role he played in getting them back from a disastrous hybrid era start.

Leclerc is not blameless in this.

So it was God’s fault?

He couldn’t have. Verstappen, who was quicker all day, would’ve easily undercut him on fresh mediums had Leclerc committed to a m-m-s strategy. With this strategy, there were three potential outcomes with Verstappen pitting on lap 38 of 70:

Agreed that Arrivabene was a much better team principal. Having said that, major credit goes to Binotto for turning Ferrari around while working under Arrivabene. But leading a factory is not the same as leading a race team, it seems.

Probably nothing. What’s more interesting is what did Aston Martin know? It’s really nice and classy to say publicly that they would’ve loved to keep Vettel after he announces his retirement, but I find it hard to believe that they weren’t looking at Alonso as his replacement anyway. That deal came together a little to…

The McLaren/Ricciardo relationship has been deteriorating for a while now. They might just be willing to buy him out if it means getting Piastri long-term, though that will be an expensive exercise.

According to the rumor mill Alpine had to take the option on Piastri no later than July 31st, which is generally seen in F1 circles as deadline day for contract options and clauses. It seems that they somehow ‘forgot’ to do so as they were in a holding pattern awaiting the outcome of the Alonso negotiations.

Hamilton wasn’t racing Verstappen, therefore didn’t have to counter him.

It’s the only move he could make, and therefore he had to make it. He wants to continue in F1 for at least two more seasons. Alpine clearly wanted him for only one more year, as evident by their refusal to budge on his demands and their public comments about shoving him off to their LMH program after 2023. While he…

you are correct, however this does mean it’s very likely than at least one engine penalty will have to be taken by both Red Bulls.

Hamilton pitted on lap 51, Leclerc on 54. Charles’ tires weren’t that much fresher.

We have eyes, and it’s clear that the other teams have it well under control. Heck, even Mercedes seems to have little issues with it anymore.

Hard, Medium or Soft... it doesn’t matter. The race was lost when they put the second set of mediums on at the first stop for both Sainz and Leclerc. They handed Red Bull a ‘checkmate’ move to pit Verstappen early for his second stop, and there is nothing they could have done to counter that. Outside of…

Not exactly earth-shattering news, but Lance also got confirmed today for 2023.

If only they hadn’t made every other team extremely scared of doing business with them as an engine supplier, they could’ve placed Piastri somewhere else for a year or two.